More Bad Press for PayPal

More and more stories are coming out about PayPal refusing to hand over ticket sales money or donations to event planners and start-ups. This freezes operations for the organizations that need the money. PayPal has reported that it is part of their anti-crime, anti-fraud practices, but to the watchers of all things Internet, it seems like no-one is at the wheel of the electronic payments goliath. Either that, or they have a very strange investment scheme happening that requires tying up their cash stores for months on end.

The latest complaint is chronicled on VentureBeat, and is sure to get quite a few hits. PayPal’s draconian (and perhaps illegal) methods are leaking out to the mainstream. This means people like me and less-savvy others will get the “PayPal is bad” message and avoid using it. PayPal already has a bad phishing email PR problem to overcome and it certainly doesn’t need the image that it won’t release funds.

I don’t think this is illegal. It’s part of the very small script nobody reads. It happened to me, and to one of my customers, for the same reason : we cashed in more money than was authorized by the guidelines and or status.

In both cases, providing the papers proving that we were legitimate and registered business solves the matter in less than three weeks.

Of course, this seems to be long when you are waiting for a huge amount of money, but we did a mistake.

This is intense and incomprehensible small print, then. And laws differ in countries. Even if it is in the small print here in the US, it can still be illegal. I’m sure PayPal’s Terms of Service will be scrutinized by the legal system here.

Interesting to see how they have been tailored to each country, even if the mother company is US.

I have had my share of problems with Paypal, and I’m currently not available to get my funds before 30 days, for very legal reasons. The point is : using such a system is so quick and easy that it can also be used for massive fraud. They have to implement massive safeguards, and as soon as you go a little bit astray, your account is flagged.

There are many options, not as easy to use and setup as Paypal in the beginning, which are more flexible after. It’s also a balance